Wanted: Biotech Firms;

Once it was a BJ's Wholesale Club. But soon the building on Smith Street in Farmingdale will be home to a high tech research laboratory for an Ireland-based biotech firm.
If Huntington and Babylon town officials have their way, more companies like that will make the Route 110 corridor their home.

So yesterday officials, citing ICON Laboratories' expansion on Smith Street as an example, said they are taking their crusade on the road to bioscience conferences across the country, in order to spark further interest in the corridor.

The effort, which was announced by Huntington Supervisor Frank Petrone and Babylon Supervisor Steve Bellone yesterday, will include attending about a half-dozen major biotech conferences annually, as well as distributing 3,000 CD-ROMs highlighting the area and building a trade booth. The group received a $22,500 grant from the Suffolk County Industrial Development Agency to get the initiative going.
Donald Middleton, executive director of the Route 110 Redevelopment Corp., a grassroots organization formed two plus years ago, has already started to attend conferences in California.
"I feel like an evangelist," said Middleton. "I've gotten the sense people are interested, but some people think Long Island is a suburb of L.A." Next week, he will be in Newport Beach, Calif., and San Francisco in November. He said there is a lot of competition for these businesses, noting "we're playing catchup to California."

Farmingdale State University of New York, home of the Broadhollow Bioscience Park, is also behind the effort, said Farmingdale's President Jonathan Gibralter, who joined town officials yesterday. He noted that $20 million in funding for the second phase of the park has been approved by the governor to add another 53,000 square feet of incubator space. Gibralter said he is also talking to Petrone and Bellone about a project to create affordable housing - about 70 units initially - on the campus. Housing costs on Long Island have been one of the biggest deterrents that keep companies from locating here. But Babylon Councilman Wayne Horsley said the towns are working on incentives to help reduce costs.